


Strike Team Red Winter

by GiannaQueenofBelgium



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: AU, Angst, Backstory, Bucky Barnes - Freeform, Escape, Eventual Romance, F/M, Fluff, Gen, Gunshot Wounds, Hydra, Hydra (Marvel), On the Run, Original Female Character - Freeform, Platonic Female/Male Relationships, Post-Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Running Away, SHIELD, Several Chapters, The Winter Soldier - Freeform, bff, domestic life, livng together, on the lamb
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-03-13
Updated: 2015-03-13
Packaged: 2018-03-17 17:07:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,582
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3537347
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GiannaQueenofBelgium/pseuds/GiannaQueenofBelgium
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bucky. He knows that is his name. The man on the bridge brought a whirlwind of memories back into his mind along with that name. Now there is no turning back, no more working for Hydra, there is only moving forward. Bucky is intent on finding answers no matter the consequences. He and his partner, Red Viper, leave the scene of SHIELD vs HYDRA and begin to search out the truth and the path to better lives. As they live off of the streets, jump from abandoned homes and homeless shelters they learn together who they were, what they are, and decide what they will become. All the time vengeful Hydra is at their heels, wanting to reclaim their master assassins and put an end to the mutiny. Not only that but the ghost that haunts Bucky's mind, Steve Rogers, will not give up his own pursuit at gaining back the best friend he's ever had.<br/>Self discovery, reclaiming what he once was, and love all lay in store for Bucky Barnes, the question is: What will he chose to do?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Strike Team Red Winter

**Strike Team:** Red Winter

**Members:**

Winter Soldier; male, cryogenic status preservation, mandatory memory wipe to conclude missions, use extreme caution around subject, recommended tranquilizers or light violence to tame when its actions are disagreeable, listens well to authority, do not allow triggering information concerning past life to come in contact with it, extract at all costs. Alias: Sargent James Buchanan Barnes.

Red Viper; female, childhood mental manipulation, trained assassin from youth, retire to holding cell to conclude missions, values team members hence supply no allies, if it turns on keeper show no mercy concerning violence to tame outbursts, abandon if Hydra discovered. Alias: Iris Abel.

**Mission:**

Execution of high level threats: Steven Rogers, Natasha Romanoff, Maria Hill, Samuel Wilson, and Nicholas Fury.

**Location:**

Unknown. Trackers have been disabled, extraction team to be sent as of 18:00.

 

 

**Chapter One**

Her file explicitly explained not to place her with others. Some personality traits were simply so deeply ingrained not even the red room could erase them, not that she had been redesigned by such majesty of morbid as those stationed at the Academy. Hers was painful, repetitive and done by hands that wanted quantity over quality. Because of this she was let loose on the world in an imperfect and unbalanced state. The creature had flawed hands that tremored for a half second before a kill, feet that were too slow to run into battle, and a mind easily manipulated into a new form of thinking. Her greatest weakness was her trust. In the end it would bring to ruin what Hydra had built throughout the decades.

The Red Viper’s trust on its own however was not enough to leave Hydra lacking its best assassins and trying to seep back into darkness and rebuilt what had been torn to ruins. No, this paired with the emotionally unstable and equally impressionable Winter Soldier was another key to the agency’s demise. The birth of this pairing can be traced back to the deceased Agent Sitwell, who in a brief moment of absentmindedness decided it would not be horrible to have another assassin accompany the infamous Winter Soldier if Captain Rogers proved harder to kill than they assumed. He died before seeing the destruction his choice would bring upon the neo-Nazi organization he worked or. Sitwell’s reasoning to why this was a good idea would never be found out (maybe he paired the two because he found the name he gave the team amusing); but for the Avengers, for the slowly rebuilding SHIELD, for the thousand simultaneously targeted by Hydra, this was the hand of God.

 

In the beginning everything went smoothly. The two were introduced; they ignored each other’s existences, and carried out the mission to a T without the slightest problem. Emphasis on “in the beginning” should be pointed out before the narrative continues. But soon afterwards, when Winter was chasing down a man his mind register as but shadow of something he knew very well once, and the Viper was tying up loose ends on the ground, things became complicated. Winter’s Mission refused to give up; he take time to throw a couple hard shots to Winter’s ribs and then lunge back towards the control panel in the helicarrier, before Winter returned to his onslaught again. It didn’t make sense to the man who was once known as Bucky why the his mission didn’t simply kill him, it was not as if there were no good chances, for goodness sake the idiot had him in a choke hold and didn’t even snap his neck! His opponent was either too kind to be in this line of work or too stupid. It was harrowing to fight him for the simple fact he wouldn’t fight back hard enough.

 

Someone was shooting at her, she didn’t know who or from where, but she could feel the dirt kicked up by the bullets pelt her legs and the sound alone was enough to make her bolt. Things were not going well anymore, that was obvious, and she was becoming anxious. Her movements were jumpier and less precise than what they should be. The helicarriers were in the air, that was good, but they were also being shot down and scraps of metal were raining upon the Earth, that was bad. Nothing was going according to the mission given to her and somehow along the way she became separated from her partner. It was nice having a partner, the last time she had one was when she was little, maybe fourteen or younger, but the other girl had died. Since then she had been on her own. Now she just wished the man with the muzzle was running away from the spray of bullets with her, at least then part of the mission requirements would be fulfilled, she would still be with her strike team.

 

The beam was crushing him and no matter how hard he pushed, how much he strained his shoulder trying to get his blasted metal arm to be stronger, it wouldn’t budge an inch. The man up above, the ghost, finished his own agenda and looked down at Winter- eyes filled with pity. Winter hadn’t seen pity in a long time and was unable to even register the emotion; he elected to ignore it and continued trying to escape. Suddenly the man was jumping off the ledge that led to the control panel and limping towards him, blood bleeding through his tattered uniform. Even the clothes the man wore were eerily something Bucky knew, but he couldn’t possibly know this man, he was not a memory; he was a target. His mission squatted down next to the beam trapping Winter and pulled up with the mere ounces of strength he had left before dropping it back down. Winter had enough time to escape however and darted away, trying not to wince at how his whole body was writhing in pain.

 

It was as simple as she couldn’t run fast enough, whoever was shooting finally got in a well-aimed shot and one of the bullets caught her in the calf. She tumbled face first into the wet dirt near the water. The damp gravel scratched at the exposed flesh of her bare palms and it was apparent removing the many little stones would be on her evening agenda. Viper struggled to look behind herself and saw a man in a black body suit embroidered with a little white emblem of a bird on his breast. SHIELD was wriggling in the dirt like a drowned worm and yet they still tried to fight back. It would have been impressive if she had enough mind left enough to think for herself. Viper flipped on her back and started to scoot away from the man on her butt, he was walking faster now and held a handgun straight out in front of himself. His finger clenched the trigger-

 

He was nothing, he knew that, he was told that every day. Winter’s only purpose on this god-forsaken earth was to hunt down his targets and annihilate them. He had no name, just a given title so he could be called on when necessary. This man however kept calling him by some fake name. He was not a “Bucky” he was a well-tuned instrument, a device meant for annihilation, nothing more and nothing less.

“Shut up!” Winter screamed but the man wouldn’t stop, he even threw down the last weapon he had- a garishly bright shield, into the water below.

“You’re my friend,” He said, breathing heavy and staring right into Winter’s eyes. There was so much emotion in the air; Winter was swimming in it, drowning in the muck. He paused for a moment, staring back at the Spector, trying to piece together a fragment of a memory that appeared in his head like a flash of lighting, sudden and then gone within an instant. It was night, there were people everywhere and lights illuminating busy streets, Winter found himself looking down at a much smaller man. He had the same face as the Captain, but he was far too tiny, too fragile to be the same man. That small fraction of a life lived and lost long ago made Winter slow in his attack, as if it had coagulated his blood from spurring him into action.

 It was a brief second of contemplation though before Winter remembered why he was here, who he had to remove from existence, and charged Steve again. He could have grabbed one of the hunks of metal around him and drove it into the other man’s stomach and let him drown below, but he wanted to silence him, to shut up his endless lies that made his head churn. Punch after punch was thrown at his face, he would not allow the other man to speak ever again.

 

The agent could have killed her easily from a distance, but since he’d never been confident with his aim the SHIELD agent wanted to get in closer for a better shot. Angie, his sister, often teased him during training that he wouldn’t be able to hit the side of a barn if he was an inch away. He was but five feet away from her, and five feet to close at that, when Viper grabbed a handful of wet dirt and threw it into his eyes. He pulled the trigger as his arms flew back in surprise and the bullet never found its intended target. In a flash she was up, ignoring the blood pumping through her black pants and the pain flaring up and blurring her vision, and then the man was down. She took his gun along with his walkie talkie, which she crushed with the heel of her boot, and took but a second to check her surroundings. Things were not going well in the slightest, she had been physically compromised and her partner may be dead. She looked across the water and saw there was brush to hide beneath; it was a better option than standing out in the open bleeding everywhere. She left him on the bank, his life blood staining the sand and seeping into the water, she wouldn’t remember him but Angie would.

 

“I’m with you till the end of the line,” The Mission says and Winter pulled back his arm to silence him forever. Then, more powerfully this time, his entire being was overwhelmed with blurry images flooding up from his strained subconscious. They’re all of the man, when he was oddly small and as Winter sees him now, but how can this be? There is a vision of him screaming as they twist and turn upside down and then right side up again, the next is of the little blonde man vomiting into a garbage can. Not only do pictures flurry within his mind but sounds as well, the man is calling him “Bucky” and he he can hear his own voice return with a name. He wants to say it out loud now, to say “Steve” but his lips won’t move. His eyes widen in horror as recognition takes over once again. He knows this man. This is a friend.

He has no idea what to do with a friend.

 

Swimming is near impossible with her injured leg but running all the way around the water and trying to get the other side is not even a valid option. When she first dipped into the cool reservoir the temperature soothed her throbbing appendage, but after a while it only makes Viper shiver and curse under her breath. There is not much left, and then she can crawl on her hands and hide in the bushes, that is as far as the plan stretches. When she set the first foot down on solid ground again there is a burst of flames above her head and she tears towards the trees. The injured leg mixed with an ignored rock sends her pummeling to the ground again, more rocks join their buddies in her palms and she cracks her head on a boulder. Blood drips into her vision casting red over the landscape. The remaining hellicarrier is sent plummeting into the water with a chorus of splashes and the sound of groaning metal.

Among the other odds and ends crashing into the water she spied two figures, one with his arms pointed towards the surf and the other limp. The obvious metal arm on the alert one allows her peace of mind that her partner has not been eliminated and that she may not have to leave here on her own. Viper wipes blood out of her eyes and pulls herself just into the edge of the tree line, being positioned behind a large oak that conceals her from anyone else bearing weapons but Winter. He’ll have no other way out of the lake but to come to shore and when he reaches her they will leave.

 

Before he could do anything, think of something to say, Steve is falling from him and into the water. Bucky, he allows himself to use that name, hangs from the falling hellicarrier for a moment before hurtling towards the Captain. The air burns his uncovered eyes and tears collect at the outer corners, he takes a deep breath a second before breaching the surface. It’s dark, not to mention murky, but in the depths he sees red, white and blue. While he swims he contemplates what to do with the other man, it only occurs to him now that he too may be lying.

If Hydra can erase memories, day and weeks of them, why couldn’t they transplant some? This man could be but another ploy to scramble his brains, to keep him under the thumb of Hydra. Once Bucky grabs ahold of Steve’s shirt he gets to air quickly and then kicks toward shore. Behind the trees concealed by shadows and underbrush his teammate waits, watching, confused to what he is doing. Her already thumping heart picks up the pace as the thought he may be betraying them all comes to mind. There are only two of them, there are not three. He should not be doing this. It goes against their mission parameters.

He sets Steve down on the ground and Cap spits up water and sand and breaths heavily, but does not awaken. Bucky watches him for a second, wavers on the edge of staying with him and running for his life. He could ask this man questions and he may or may not give reliable answers. Bucky also could search them out for himself, and then at least he would know no one would be influencing what information reached him and what did not. The expanse of the world stretches out in front of him and nothing stands in the way.

A figure emerges slowly from the tree line. Bucky looks up and meets the cold stare of Red Viper. She pulls a gun from her waist and aims it first at Steve, then raises it towards Bucky’s head. Her hand tremors once, a sign she is about to pull the trigger.

“What do you think you’re doing?” She asks and cocks the gun with her thumb while taking two steps back. Two _limping_ steps he notices. Red liquid is dribbling from her calf, through a gaping hole in the side of her tight pants and down onto her black combat boots. Bucky wouldn’t be surprised if she shattered one of her bones in her leg. He’s seen injuries like this before, he can’t place where, but at how ragged the flesh is Bucky knows she is probably fighting to stay conscious. He returns his stare from her bleeding leg to her eyes.

“He’s one of them, one of our targets.” Bucky raises off the ground smooth as water and strides towards her, trying not to frighten her but get to the gun before she pulls the trigger. Her aim wavers between Steve’s chest and Bucky’s forehead. This can’t be happening to her, she can’t lose another partner- even if it is by her own hand. Why did he bring Steven Rogers here? He should have left him in the water, and then their job would have been done twice as fast. She’s in so much pain and confusion is making her sluggish. The edges of her vision blinks with bright flashes and everything is slowly dimming.

“Answer me!” She yells and he stops approaching her, she straightens her arm like a board and keeps it dead center between his eyes. “What are you doing?”

“I know him,” His voice is deeper than she imagined; these are the first words he’s spoken to her. She frowns, her eyebrows lowering over her red rimmed eyes. Viper leans more weight onto her good weight and bites the inside of her cheek, the pain is increasing, and at first it wasn’t as bad. But now, oh wow, now it feels like her entire leg was crushed by a truck. She has to act fast, finish the mission and they’ll retrieve her, that is how it is supposed to work.

“Move,” Viper returns the gun to Steve’s general direction. Bucky takes one step to the side and places himself in her way.

“I’ll shoot you, move.”

“I can’t let you do that,” Those few words trigger a flash of limbs and the release of confusion and anger. She lands the first hit, a perfect upper cut as he charges, but he is faster and his metal hand snakes around the Viper’s throat. The gun flies into the water during the assault. With three long strides he throws her against the base of a large tree and slowly raises her up. She screams curses and spits at him. Her hands claw first at the arm and then move towards his face, trying to gouge at his eyes and make Bucky drop her. Her arms are not long enough and when she tries to kick he grabs her one good leg and pins it to his side at an unnatural angle. The other leg is useless to her and when she begins to run out of air Viper knows this is the end.

“Don’t. Touch. Him.”

He drops her to the ground and she gasps for breath. Bucky turns back to the unconscious form of the ghost and stares at him for a moment.

“T-tell me w-what’s going on,” Viper sputters and tries to calm her spasming diaphragm. Everything is becoming too much, the world is becoming darker and her energy stores are draining. It won’t be long now.

“They lied to us. I’m leaving.”

“Where? There is nowhere else to go.”

“There’s everywhere to go. The whole world is out there, everything I need to know is out there.” He puts his back to Steve and looks at the girl laying on the ground. She’s young, younger than he thinks he is at least, maybe 23. Her face is cut up, blood is smeared all over the left side of her face and her bottom lip is bust open. The wound on her leg is still steadily pumping out blood onto the beach. If she doesn’t get medical attention soon it won’t be long until she goes into shock and not long after that dies of blood loss. He can tell shock is setting in already and that she has been panicking for a while now, her entire body shakes with each breath and her teeth grind against one another.

“You really think you can just leave them?” Her mind flickers back to times when she deviated slightly from her directions, the beatings and starvation that followed. The memory of having her head held under water until she almost drowned flooded her mind. She blinked fast and returned to staring at Winter. He must be out of his mind to disobey. “They’ll never let you.”

“They’ll follow. I won’t go back to them.”

“Is because of him?” They both glance at Steve. Bucky doesn’t reply.

“Am I going to have to kill you?” He asks.

“What?”

“Are you going to report this to them?”

“No.” She answers robotically. He starts to walk down the beach, away from the man who has opened a cavern in his mind and away from the girl who will die in a little while. Hydra is too busy to return for some low level assassin. If Hydra does find her though they’ll kill her, putting her down like a horse with a broken leg. He doesn’t know what to think about leaving her. A small part doesn’t care; another part wants to do something.

“Take me with,” She says and he stops.

 

No words are exchanged as he turns around and then bends down next to her. They remain silent as he picks her up and continues on his way. Finding answers is going to have to be put off for a little while longer; he’s going to have to get to a hospital first. Her leg is still bleeding; the blood is dripping onto his arms. When they’re a couple yards away he starts to hear Steve coughing and walks faster. Soon he’s running, Viper bouncing in his arms and trying not to groan out in pain.

He won’t mind at all if he has to run for the rest of his life. If he has to run forever to get answers he’ll do just that.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you very, very much for reading! I work very hard at making the best possible content and truly appreciate when I receive feedback on my work. If you have time I'd love to read your comments, feedback, ways I could improve, literally anything! I love to hear how my headcannons concerning cannon characters are received and what people think of my original characters as well.  
> Thank you so much for the love and feedback!


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